Customer Service vs. Customer Success vs. Customer Care vs. Customer Experience: suddenly we are immersed in a sea of terms related to how to deal with our customers.
If you're confused about what each one means, don't worry, you're not alone. These terms, being relatively new, are bound to cause some confusion.
It's not a new phenomenon that the spotlight is on the customer, which, in part, explains the emergence of so many methodologies on how to put the customer at the center of the business.
Although they are related, these concepts do not mean the same thing. However, the close relationship between them causes some uncertainty when defining each one.
With that in mind, we decided to gather all these terms and define them in a simple and objective way, so that you'll never again be lost in this "alphabet soup".
What is Customer Service?
Customer Service is proactive advice to help you make a good purchase and usage decision.
Customer Service is assistance that a company offers to help buyers or potential customers with the purchase or use of the company's products and services, satisfying their needs before, during, and after a sale.
Customer service is proactive. It seeks to understand the needs of its customers so that it can act before doubts arise and ensure the best possible experience.
In other words, instead of waiting for the customer to ask for help, he is proactive in resolving future questions or problems before they even arise. This is unlike Support, which reacts to a customer's problem or question.
What is Customer Care?
Customer care refers to how well customers are served while interacting with the brand.
In other words, the company adopts the stance of not just selling, but of caring for its customers, listening to their needs and making them feel valued and respected by the brand.
Customer care is more than offering a complimentary coffee while the customer waits. It's about putting yourself in their shoes and looking out for them, identifying their problems or desires and delivering the right solution for each customer.
Finally, as customers feel well cared for and respected, an emotional connection is built between the brand and the customer. Customer care ensures that each customer feels unique when being served by the company.
Check it out: Customer Effort Score: Measuring customer effort
What is Customer Success?
Customer Success is about putting your customer's goals first.
Customer Success is when a company adopts the stance that its success will come as a consequence when its customers first achieve the results they desire. The company positions itself as a partner to its customer.
The Customer Success team truly focuses on the customer and how that customer can succeed, rather than just focusing on how the company can succeed. To do this, Customer Success aligns the customer's goals with those of the company to achieve mutually beneficial results.
Customer Success is also related to expanding value, both for the customer and for the business, simultaneously. Working proactively, it helps customers get the most value from a product or service, working closely with sales, marketing, and solution teams to achieve this goal and increasing upselling and cross-selling opportunities.
Check out this super comprehensive article about: Customer Success: what is it and why adopt this strategy?
What is Customer Experience?
Customer Experience is the journey of a customer's interactions with a brand.
Customer Experience is the sum of all touchpoints, from the initial discovery and research of a product or service, through customer service and after-sales support. This includes social media, packaging, marketing campaigns, website design, and the actual use of the product or service.
Customer Experience is how your customer feels when interacting with your brand, and this involves operational functions (related to the performance of your solution), emotional functions (related to the bonds created), and expression (perceived personal values).
Customer experience also means being proactive; the company is always looking for ways to optimize the customer journey before they become dissatisfied. Their methodology isn't about putting out fires, but about identifying potential points of combustion and preventing them from catching fire.
Check it out: What is Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT)?
Let's recap what each term means:
- Customer Service is proactive advice to help you make a good purchase and usage decision.
- Customer care refers to how well customers are served while interacting with the brand.
- Customer Success is about putting your customer's goals first.
- Customer Experience is how a customer feels when interacting with your brand.
Which one should you be worried about?
Well, besides the word "customer," all these methodologies have something else in common. In a general and comprehensive way, they aim to reduce costs and increase customer retention, and the customer is at the center of the entire strategy.
Therefore, our advice is: start with what's easiest for you—with what's within your reach—and what you can do now, without needing to mobilize significant resources.
Want a tip? Start with your customer. Listen to what they have to say, and from there you'll know what your next step should be.
Check it out: How to improve customer experience using customer reviews (online ratings)
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